Oct 05 2010

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail

I took a little break to revisit some of my own recipes. Since my last post I’ve made more banana bread and some of my other favorites. I just needed some mindless cooking where I knew the outcome would be fabulous. Now it’s back to my Southwestern Fiesta Cooking Class.

Chef Gigi shared a Mexican Shrimp Cocktail recipe that would be fabulous eaten with tortilla chips. We ate it on a bed of shredded lettuce, but boy was I craving a nice salty chip to scoop up the dip. Chef Gigi doesn’t usually use the small bay shrimp for the recipe, but I kind of liked it that way. She normally uses a bigger deveined/tail off shrimp for the recipe. The c0-op had given her bay shrimp for the evening.

The Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Fresh Orange Juice
2 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Juice
1/4 Cup Cocktail Sauce – Chile Sauce or Ketchup could be substituted
1/4 Cup Salsa – Fresh homemade or deli salsa was recommended
1 Teaspoon Horseradish
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Mexican Hot Sauce to Taste
1/2 Cucumber – seeded and diced – use a spoon to scrape the seeds out.
1 Tomato – seeded and diced – Roma tomatoes work best for this recipe
1/2 Onion – diced – sweet white works best, but Chef Gigi used red for our batch
1 Small Can Diced Ortega Chilies – you could sub with a fresh jalapeno as well
1/4 Cup Packed Cilantro – chopped
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Clove Garlic – minced
1 Pound Cooked Shrimp – rinsed well with cold water
1 Avocado – diced
Shredded Iceberg Lettuce, Cabbage or CHIPS, Chips and more Chips 😉

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together except for the shrimp and avocado. Right before serving, add the shrimp and avocado.

I loved the flavors. I didn’t want the small bowl to end and I think this would be great for a party type atmosphere. If I were serving it as a main meal, I would go with the bigger shrimp and I love the idea of a bed of mixed lettuce and cabbage for that. I am definitely a chip/dip girl through and through – so I will probably stick with that idea the next time I make this.

In other news: I ran in a 5K over the weekend and posted a recap on my new Etc. page. I figured I needed a place to post about non food/recipe stuff like Higgy, workout/exercise and holiday/home decor updates,  since all of those are a very important part of my life too.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1794

Oct 01 2010

Kahlua Flan

I completed the last in the series of 5 cooking classes that I signed up for through the co-op. It was a Southwestern Fiesta class. Chef Gigi was our instructor and once again, she shared recipes for some amazing dishes. I’m going to start this series off with dessert. I’ve never been a huge flan fan, but I have on several occasions taken a bite or two of someone else’s plate at a restaurant. I think the addition of Kahlua has changed my mind about flan. Never in a million years would I have thought it would be a fairly easy dessert to make at home.

The Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Sugar
4 Large Eggs
1 (14 oz.) Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 (12 oz.) Can of Evaporated Milk
2 Tablespoons Kahlua
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Freshly Grated Nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (A tip Chef Gigi shared – Do not use a convection oven for flan or cheesecake baking – the fan cools them down too much).

In a small saucepan (Heavy and wide = better) – cook the sugar over medium heat until it melts and caramelizes. Do not stir the sugar, just swirl the  sugar by moving the pan. The pan needs to be completely dry and the reason behind not stirring the sugar is because the sugar will crystallize to the spoon – it becomes granular and won’t completely liquify. Once melted, the sugar becomes lava hot. Be very careful when working with it, you do not want the hot sugar touching your skin.

Pour the sugar quickly into a 9″ cake pan and swirl to coat evenly – an Anolon pan w/handles works great for this. Don’t stress if the entire bottom of the pan isn’t coated before it sets – it will harden very quickly, but will melt again in the oven to spread out evenly during baking.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and the condensed milk. Add the evaporated milk and whisk again. Incorporate the remaining ingredients (spices and Kahlua) into the bowl, stir and pour the custard mix into the cake pan.

Place the cake pan into a larger roasting pan and fill with hot water until it reaches halfway up the cake pan. The water bath allows for more even cooking. Be careful when transporting to the oven, you don’t want the custard to slop out or the water to slop in. (yes, very technical terms being used here) – If you want to make individual custard dish size flan desserts, follow the same recipe – including placing the custard cups in a roasting pan of hot water – you will just need to adjust the cooking time. The individual cups will take less time.

Bake until set, about 50 minutes or until the custard is firm, but still slightly jiggles (more technical terms) – it should be similar in consistency to Jello that has been set. Remove the cake pan from the larger pan of water and let cool on a rack for about 30 minutes and then refrigerate for at least two hours. To serve, run a knife along the edges, place a bigger platter over the top of the flan and gently flip the plate and pan over to release it.

Cut into wedges and serve.

The Kahlua flavor was awesome. The flan wasn’t too sweet, it was the perfect pairing to some of the spicier dishes prepared during the class. Chef Gigi also suggested a different add in – freeze dried espresso with a tad bit of hot water mixed in – I bet that would taste great as well.

Are you a flan fan? If not, what desserts do you suggest pairing with southwestern dishes?

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1763

Sep 30 2010

Homemade Dog Treats for Higgins

The blog cooking love has been enjoyed by Dan and I, but Higgy hasn’t had a chance to join in the fun. I started doing some dog treat research online a few weeks ago. I wanted something simple and I wanted to make sure it didn’t use any ingredients that would be harmful to our little guy.  I found several lists of “off limits” ingredients and will include a link at the bottom of this post.

I’ve received lost of emails, tweets and facebook messages from people asking how Higgins is doing. I used to talk about him a lot on the old blog. For those new to this blog, our miniature schnauzer Higgins had an FCE (Fibrocartilaginous Embolism) – also know as a spinal stroke. This happened in February 2010. He suffered paralysis from mid back down. Both back legs and his tail were completely paralyzed. He spent a week in the ICU at U.C. Davis Vet Hospital. The stay included an MRI, Heart Ultrasound, Spinal Tap, I.V. catheters, and many other tests. We took him home on the 8th day and our lives really changed.

Higgins was a pretty self sufficient dog before the stroke. He had a dog door, played for hours with his toys and was just a happy-go-lucky dog.  The first few days at home were rough. We provided round the clock care for him. He had a back leg sling so we could assist him with walking wheelbarrow style. We purchased a new crate with all kinds of padding to prevent bed sores, etc. Months and months of care, walking therapy and rest worked wonders. He slowly regained movement in his right leg and tail. He is doing much better now. He still has some paralysis in his left leg and he’s lost the majority of muscle in his hind quarters, but he’s able to walk and run with the use of a boot to help protect his skin from dragging his lame leg/foot. His balance has improved and he’s back to using his dog door with the assistance of a ramp built by Dan. It’s amazing how he has adapted to his new “normal” – I find myself looking at him in complete awe. I won’t lie, there have been many tearful times, it hasn’t all been joyful, but for the most part, I’m just amazed.  He’s just such a little fighter, I’m so proud of our boy!

I wanted to make sure to get his boot in a photo. This is his 6th boot. The rough outdoor surfaces keep wearing them out. Dan did some customization on this boot. He actually broke out scissors and a needle and thread to shorten it a bit. Go Martha/Dan go! Duct tape has also been a key factor in helping with daily wear and tear.

Thanks to everyone who has sent well wishes, virtual hugs and love his way. It has been so appreciated.

Now let’s get to the cooking part…

The Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Teaspoon Peanut Butter
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Cup Oats
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla

I made sure to check the boxes of dog biscuit mix I already owned – the dry ingredients were very similar. I printed out 4-5 recipes and created something I thought would be good based on some of the feedback from dog owners and dog bakeries I found online.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the honey and the peanut butter and heat in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds. Give it a good stir.

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. The mixture turned out to be pretty greasy, I was a little worried that I had used too much oil. Next time I will cut down the oil a bit. Once everything was mixed together, I grabbed some dough, rolled it into a ball and pressed it down on my mat to use a cookie cutter. I didn’t need to flour the surface, the oil helped things not stick. You could also just drop dough balls onto the baking sheet – you don’t need to go crazy with cutters.

Is it wrong that I was going to be feeding Higgy cookies in the shape of himself? Hah! I actually thought it was hysterical. I did also make some round button treats.

The dough was enough to make 1 dozen dog shaped treats. I placed the baking sheet into the oven and baked them for 10 minutes. I kept checking to make sure that they didn’t burn on the bottoms.

They puffed up quite a bit. Higgy’s normal turkey jerky treats are super tiny. This was going to be like a 4 course meal for him. I let them cool for a good 30-45 minutes… then I tasted one. Yep, I ate a miniature Higgy treat. I definitely could taste the oat flavor, but for the most part, it was pretty bland. I didn’t really taste the peanut butter or honey because the wheat and oat flavors overpowered.

The next step was to try them out on Higgy. I held one up and he spun around like a top. He was super excited. Kind of hard to juggle the camera, but you get the idea.

Om Nom Nom! – He grabbed the treat and broke it into a million pieces on the carpet. Then he spent the next 10 minutes hoovering it up. Licking the carpet, licking his paws – yikes, maybe the tile would have been a better option.

He loved them! He danced around in a circle waiting for treat number 2. There was no way he was getting another giant cookie treat before dinner.

Pouty McPouty Face sure does melt my heart. I was strong, I stood my ground – didn’t want to spoil his dinner.

Today is a new day – I see a lunch time treat in his future.

You always want to be careful when feeding your pets new foods – I definitely made sure that Higgy had previously had the majority of the ingredients I’d given him by checking the list of ingredients in his daily dog food, other treats, etc. You could also consult with your vet as a precaution if you are concerned.

ASPCA Website – People foods to avoid feeding your pets

Make sure you store the treats in an airtight container.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1731